


Golden Retriever

by fragilecapricornpanic



Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [48]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Abusive Reginald Hargreeves, Angst, Angst and Humor, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves Friendship, Ben Hargreeves Deserves Better, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Canon Compliant, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Humor, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Mental Health Issues, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Canon, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26254729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilecapricornpanic/pseuds/fragilecapricornpanic
Summary: “Well, I was part of the Umbrella Academy, but you can probably guess that based on my name being Number Four Hargreeves. But call me Klaus.” Klaus waved hisHELLO. “I see dead people.” he whispered, waggling his eyebrows. Ben was shaking his head, clearly not amused. Whatever. Loser. Klaus flashed the finger at his brother, ignoring the disturbed look his therapist gave him. “The dead people don’t leave me alone, all-“ he loudly shrieked, impersonating his haunters. His therapist startled so intensely she almost joined the dead. “-which is like, not very fun!” Klaus raised his eyebrows, tapping his fingers rapidly across his knees.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Series: PRE-WRITTEN, Pre-Canon Sibling Encounters [48]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869709
Comments: 8
Kudos: 131





	Golden Retriever

**Author's Note:**

> They’re only around 19 here, see end notes for other stories in this series that give more context to why Vanya and Klaus were here!

“Well, I was part of the Umbrella Academy, but you can probably guess that based on my name being Number Four Hargreeves. But call me Klaus.” Klaus waved his **HELLO**. “ _I see dead people._ ” he whispered, waggling his eyebrows. Ben was shaking his head, clearly not amused. Whatever. Loser. Klaus flashed the finger at his brother, ignoring the disturbed look his therapist gave him. “My dad’s a prick, we all hate him. Apart from Luther, but he doesn’t really count. His heads so far up dad’s ass they’re basically conjoined!” Klaus grossly wiped at his nose, feeling a drip running down. “The dead people don’t leave me alone, all-“ he loudly shrieked, impersonating his haunters. His therapist startled so intensely she almost joined the dead. “-which is like, not very fun!” Klaus raised his eyebrows, tapping his fingers rapidly across his knees.

Gemma, his therapist, stared on at him in slack jawed silence - her pen almost slipping from her grip. It seemed she wasn’t sure if Klaus had finished his rambling, looking on at him expectingly. “Are you... are you finished?” she murmured, brow tightly furrowed. Klaus thought she was shit at her job, she spends all day talking to wackos and she can’t even respond when he merely introduces himself? If Klaus had actually been _paying_ for this, he’d be royally outraged.

The only noise in the room was flooding in from the open window, the sounds of traffic and mid summer chatter. “Should that be open?” Klaus randomly yelped, pointing to the ajar window. Gemma looked to the window in alarm, stuttering out attempts to respond. This was his very private information. Anyone could be listening. This wasn’t Dr. Phil, he didn’t want an audience. “Confidentiality!” Klaus elaborated, eyes wide with concern. Ben shoved his face into his hand, his cringe feeling almost visceral. “We’re on the third floor, Klaus. No one can hear you.” he groaned. Klaus pursed his lips dubiously, but eventually shrugged nonchalantly. “Fine. Fine. Yes, I’m finished.” he huffed.

Gemma cleared her throat, tightening her grip on the pen. “Is that why you had the flashback... the dead people?” she inquired, still looking rather bewildered. Amateur, Klaus thought. If she thought this was confusing she’d end up in a coma by the end of his mandated therapy hours.

“Wasn’t a flashback!” he anxiously giggled, waggling a finger in her direction. “But no. Well... yes. Sort of. A bit.” he spluttered, struggling to explain his thinking process even to himself. Gemma frowned even harder, gesturing a hand at him to continue. “It’s, well... it’s the dead people, they’re all like-“ Klaus shrieked again, though this time much quieter “but it’s- it’s...” Klaus flicked his vision up to Ben, who looked bemused by this experience. “Can you leave the room, please.” Klaus begged with a coy wince. Ben mournfully nodded and pushed himself up from his chair, making his way out of the room.

”Talk slower.” he commanded as he phased through the wall. Klaus was tempted to talk faster purely out of spite. Plus, it would confuse the therapist even more. That would be funny!

“Me?...” Gemma sheepishly questioned, glancing over to where Klaus had been looking when he asked Ben to leave. She shuffled away slightly from that spot.

 _Her?_ Of course he didn’t mean her, she was the therapist! “No, Ben. Always nagging at me!” he proclaimed, gesturing a puppet yapping with his hand. Klaus had forgotten that that offered no explanation to a stranger. Gemma looked thoroughly confused. “Oh!” he gasped “My brother... he died.” Klaus grimaced, shrugging his shoulders. “Very graphic, _lots of blood_...” he gestured his hands vaguely at his abdomen. He hoped it looked like tentacles, it was hard to mime tentacles. He didn’t have enough arms. “Anyways,” Klaus awkwardly whistled “my dad used to lock me in a mausoleum when I was a kid, said it would make me less scared of the ghosts.” Klaus wheezed at the ridiculousness of that opinion. Gemma was looking on at him with pity, which Klaus loathed. He scowled at his therapist in response. “Being trapped in enclosed spaces makes me kind of go back there...” he mumbled, violently picking at the polish on his nails.

Gemma interrupted her furious scribbling of notes to look back up at Klaus. “That’s a flashback.” she announced bluntly. Klaus was tempted to throw _her_ the finger this time, he just narrowed his eyes at her instead. “Is it still as hard, having the dead people following you around?” she gently inquired, smiling at Klaus softly.

Uh oh! This was going to be a barrel of laughs. “No...” Klaus shiftily looked down at his manically bouncing feet. He could sense Gemma looking at him, wanting him to elaborate. “Well, so-“ he didn’t want to have a lecture from this woman. He got enough of those from the sparse people he had in his life. He could just lie, but he was a terrible liar. Klaus lied all the time. Every day. But he was still no good at it. “When I was ten I was being haunted by this really gross looking ghost. It’s face was all mangled, I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman. It could’ve been an animal for all I knew!” Klaus shuddered remembering the way that _thing_ looked. “That was a joke by the way! Animals don’t have ghosts.” Wait, they didn’t did they? Klaus didn’t think so, he’d never seen one. Surely there would be dogs and... horses sauntering around? He wished there were ghost dogs, that would probably make his power less terrifying. He could have a golden retriever following him around instead of Ben. Gemma called his name, seeming rather irritated with him zoning out.

Frantically shaking his head at himself, shoving the ghost dog out of his mind - Klaus continued “Anyways, I’d heard that when adults needed to relax they would drink booze, so I went to my dad’s bar and snuck some of his whiskey - and the more I drank the quieter the ghosts got!” He remembered the intense feeling of relief and excitement he’d felt that day. “So I just kept doing that every day, drinking more and more. Then when I was twelve, I broke my jaw...” Klaus absentmindedly rubbed at the hinge of his jaw. “Then my mom- who is a _robot_ by the way, did I mention that?!” he exclaimed excitedly. Gemma shook her head, seeming quite underwhelmed. Klaus was disappointed, he normally got more of a reaction. This woman was a freak of nature, he thought. Who wouldn’t gasp at a robomom?!

“She gave me morphine, and the ghosts weren’t just quiet - they were _gone_...” Klaus felt envious towards his childhood self, remembering how strongly the morphine affected him. These days he could take ten times that amount and barely feel a buzz. Not that it was about feeling high... it was fully about the ghosts. Klaus wasn’t like other junkies, _he_ had a reason. The high was purely a bonus. “So I said my jaw hurt for a really long time, but eventually they realised so I had to start sneaking out. I haven’t really been sober since then.” he admitted, feeling utterly pathetic. Who the fuck becomes an addict at ten?!

The therapist looked Klaus up and down, not seeming judgemental merely thoughtful. “Yeah, I read about the rehab stays in your file.” she replied, seeming almost guilty. She’d have been an utter idiot to not have known Klaus was using, even without his files. He was practically jumping off the walls. Ben warned him not to do so much speed before therapy, he’d threatened to wander into the ominous void when Klaus skulked off to the restroom to take even more as he waited. Klaus was glad he did - it made things much more entertaining. How else could he talk about the worst parts of his life for an hour? “Why can you see Ben?” she muttered, glancing back over to the place Ben had been perched. 

Why _could_ he see Ben? Klaus wasn’t sure. He was regretting telling her the drugs turned off his power - now she’d just think he was crazy. He was sick of everyone thinking he was crazy. “I’m not crazy!” he blurted defensively. “I think it’s because we’re brothers...” he mumbled, looking down at his nails and making the decision to paint them again after this bullshit. “He’s real, I swear.” Klaus promised, refusing to look up at his therapist. He’d probably snap if he saw that she looked disbelieving... it wouldn’t be wise to get arrested again. Ben was _real_. He was sick of everyone telling him he wasn’t. Klaus was literally _The_ fucking _Seance_! “My family all think I’m crazy, isn’t that so dumb? Or they just think I’m lying... trying to get money from them somehow. It makes me mad, but I can understand their side too. I would _definitely_ lie and tell them Ben was a ghost even if he wasn’t.” Klaus hastily rambled, wheezing at his last sentence. He was such an asshole.

Ben didn’t want to infringe on his brother’s privacy, but he was also quite reluctant to wander too far. He had decided to just lean against the wall next to the other side of the door. Ben could hear his brother’s ranting growing progressively louder, but he couldn’t make out the words. It was concerning him that Klaus had asked for him to leave the room - what was so bad that he couldn’t bare to admit in front of him? After everything Ben had witnessed his brother go through, it was nerve wracking that there had apparently been something so much worse. Seemingly, Klaus was doing something especially weird, as Ben heard the therapist begin to yell. “Jeez, will you _relax_?! I’m not leaving.” Klaus shouted over his shoulder at the therapist as he flung the door open. He sounded as though _Gemma_ was the one behaving erratically. “I need you to prove you’re here.” Klaus begged, looking rather upset.

—

“She wrote...” Ben peered over Gemma’s shoulder at the note she’d written for Ben to read. “This is unproductive.” Ben mumbled, finding it difficult to not sound amused. She was right, this nonsense wasn’t what Klaus was here for. It wasn’t like Ben did it on purpose, he was looking right at the notes anyway... but his eyes fell on the words _”locked in a mausoleum”_ and he felt his nonexistent blood run cold. He cleared his throat awkwardly, trying not to look shifty. Klaus would be mortified if he knew Ben knew, clearly it wasn’t something he wanted to share. It was difficult for Ben to keep his anger at their dad contained.

Klaus was feeling too smug to care why Ben looked furious. He’d probably just pissed him off again. Klaus was always pissing him off. “He said you wrote _this is unproductive_ , which was unnecessarily bitchy - by the way.” Klaus rolled his eyes, slumping backwards into the uncomfortable wooden chair he was sat on. He’d been expecting a headrest for some reason, so his head flung backwards harshly. “Ow...” Klaus mumbled as he shuffled upwards and rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Are you two close?” Gemma pondered, glancing over her shoulder attempting to look at Ben. Which was quite entertaining, since Ben had now made his way to standing beside Klaus. “Kinda have to be...” Klaus muttered from the side of his mouth as he chewed on a nail. Ben was just going to pretend that didn’t hurt. “What about your other siblings?” Gemma wondered, a look of concentration on her face. She was probably trying to remember how many kids were in the Umbrella Academy, Ben supposed.

“I see Diego sometimes, the stabby one.” Klaus mimed frenziedly throwing knives at his therapist. She flinched on reflex, even though he had nothing in his hands. “Saw Vanya outside... she must get therapy too. The public don’t know about her.” Klaus explained as he saw Gemma open her mouth to speak. “She has no power. Just really good at the violin. I told her Ben was here!” Klaus giggled bitterly. “She didn’t believe me, I can’t really blame her, I _did_ hug her so I could steal her watch.” he pulled the wristwatch from his pocket and flashed it at his therapist with a manic glint to his eyes.

Ben shot his brother a petty glare. “Maybe don’t tell her that you just robbed someone?” 

“You’re the one always bitching at me to open up!” Klaus yelled, scowling right back at Ben. Hypocrite. He threw a hand through his brother’s abdomen, trying to shoo him away. It was worth the slight shiver he felt. Ben hit him through the face in return, causing a nice cool breeze to waft through his head. It was actually quite relaxing. “Jokes on you,” Klaus taunted “I _liked_ that!” Ben groaned and stormed back out of the room, having no patience for his brother when he was tweaking like this.

Clearing her throat to regain Klaus’ attention, Gemma glanced down to her own wristwatch. “Lets call it a day.” she suggested with a disturbed smile. Klaus practically threw himself from his seat, incredibly eager to ditch this shithole. Gemma rose to her feet too, sauntering towards the door to let Klaus out. “Can you not be so...” she squinted at him warily “... _hyper_ next time?” She was clearly tucking the arm she wore her watch on behind her back. Klaus didn’t blame her. He’d been considering stealing it.

”Sure.” Klaus scoffed, having no intention to be less high next time. It was the only way to make talking about things somewhat bearable. Ben blew frustrated air from his nose. Klaus glanced over at him, pouting depressively. “Fine... no speed.” he placated to his brother. He’d just stick to the downers, maybe if he was half asleep she’d just let him sit there in silence for an hour. She might even stop bothering nagging at him!

”Great...” Gemma apprehensively responded, under the fair impression that Klaus was addressing her. “See you next week.” she smiled nervously, Klaus rolled his eyes and shoved **GOODBYE** up to her face as he squished past her in the doorway.

**Author's Note:**

> In chronological order:
> 
> False Imprisonment - part 43
> 
> Pink Sunglasses - part 24
> 
> Banglessness (Vanya’s POV) - part 23
> 
> I’m uploading a bunch of the Klaus and Ben fics bc ppl were enjoying them a lot but if you want to see any more characters lmk! Gonna be posting more Vanya, Allison, and Diego soon. If I don’t have any pre-written fics for certain character combos I can try write some :P


End file.
